1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cloud-based systems and methods for automated analytics of input from mobile robots and/or mobile devices for security surveillance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art that mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. Mobile robots can be found in industry, military and security environments. They also appear as consumer products, for entertainment or to perform certain tasks. Further, cloud computing is becoming a popular tool in many different technical fields. Cloud computing refers to the provision of computational resources via a computer network. Cloud computing has been referred to as “client-server computing”, however, there may be distinctions between general cloud computing and client-server computing. For example, client-server computing may include a distributed application structure that partitions tasks or workloads between providers of a resource or service, and service requesters.
It is also known in the art that a robotic device may communicate with a server in a cloud to perform a variety of tasks. However, nowhere in the prior art is provided a social surveillance or security system that allows for mobile robots taking the place of security guards and fixed cameras, uploading of captured inputs, authentication of such inputs, and cloud-based analysis of the inputs in order to provide real-time or near real-time surveillance of a certain environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,718,837 for “Interfacing with a mobile telephone robot” by inventor Yulun Wang filed on Jan. 27, 2012, describes a telepresence robot. The telepresence robot may include a drive system, a control system, an imaging system, and a mapping module. The mapping module may access a plan view map of an area and tags associated with the area. In various embodiments, each tag may include tag coordinates and tag information, which may include a tag annotation. A tag identification system may identify tags within a predetermined rage of the current position and the control system may execute an action based on an identified tag whose tag information comprises a telepresence robot action modifier. The telepresence robot may rotate an upper portion independent from a lower portion. A remote terminal may allow an operator to control the telepresence robot using any combination of control methods, including by selecting a destination in a live video feed, by selecting a destination on a plan view map, or by using a joystick or other peripheral device.
U.S. Publication 2011/0288684 for “Mobile robot system” by inventor Tim S. Farlow filed on Feb. 22, 2011, describes a robot system. The robot system includes a mobile robot having a controller executing a control system for controlling operation of the robot, a cloud computing service in communication with the controller of the robot, and a remote computing device in communication with the cloud computing service. The remote computing device communicates with the robot through the cloud computing service.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,532,820 for “Cloud service to manage robotic devices” by inventor Satish Kumar Sampath filed on Sep. 19, 2012, describes methods and systems enabling a cloud service to manage robotic device. An example method includes receiving a task order including information that identifies configuration requirements for a robotic device to perform a task, program instructions executable by the robotic device to perform the tasks, and payment information for the task. The method may also include selecting one or more robotic devices to perform the task from among a pool of robotic devices. For instance, the selected one or more robotic devices may be leased for a period of time to perform the task. The method may further include providing the configuration requirements and the program instructions to the selected one or more robotic devices, and receiving confirmation that the task has been performed. According to the method, payment may be provided to one or more accounts registered with the selected one or more robotic devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,639,644 for “Shared robot knowledge base for use with cloud computing system” by inventor Ryan Hickman filed on May 4, 2012, describes shared robot knowledge bases for use with cloud computing system. In one embodiment, the cloud computing system collects data from a robot about an object the robot has encountered in its environment, and stores the received data in the shared robot knowledge base. In another embodiment, the cloud computing system sends instructions for interacting with an object to a robot, receives feedback from the robot based on its interaction with the object, and updates data in the shared robot knowledge base based on the feedback. In yet another embodiment, the cloud computing system sends instructions to a robot for executing an application based on information stored in the shared robot knowledge base. In the disclosed embodiments, information in the shared robot knowledge bases is updated based on robot experiences so that any particular robot may benefit from prior experience of other robots.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,751,043 for “Discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots” by inventor Shang Q. Guo filed on Sep. 14, 2012, describes techniques for discovery and monitoring of an environment using a plurality of robots. A plurality of robots navigate an environment by determining a navigation buffer for each of the robots; and allowing each of the robots to navigate within the environment while maintaining a substantially minimum distance from other robots, wherein the substantially minimum distance corresponds to the navigation buffer, and wherein a size of each of the navigation buffers is reduced over time based on a percentage of the environment that remains to be navigated. The robots can also navigate an environment by obtaining a discretization of the environment to a plurality of discrete regions; and determining a next unvisited discrete region for one of the plurality of robots to explore in the exemplary environment using a breadth-first search. The plurality of discrete regions can be, for example, a plurality of real or virtual tiles.
U.S. Publication 2013/0197718 for “Apparatus and method for unmanned surveillance, and robot control device for unmanned surveillance” by inventor Chang Eun Lee filed on Jan. 30, 2012, describes apparatus and methods for unmanned surveillance. An unmanned surveillance device includes a robot control terminal configured to be loaded within a remote control robot under a surveillance environment, collect state information and surrounding circumstance information, operate the remote control robot in driving mode or surveillance mode according to a remote control command corresponding to the state information and surrounding circumstance information. Further, the unmanned surveillance device includes a remote control system configured to receive the state information and the surrounding circumstance information of the remote control robot from the robot control terminal, output the received state information and surrounding circumstance information of the remote control robot, and provide the remote control command to the robot control terminal.
Further, it is known in the prior art to use mobile devices for security surveillance, as well as to analyze image and video content for surveillance purposes. While the prior art discloses individual aspects of the present invention, very few, if any, teach the ability to authenticate and analyze captured inputs from un-registered user-devices. The present invention permits remote computers to accept captured inputs from a variety of mobile devices, authenticate metadata from the captured inputs, and analyze the inputs to provide surveillance information.
The proliferation of wireless, mobile devices having image and video functions is widespread and use of these device-functions continues to increase. Sporting events, social gatherings, dissident events, and emergency situations are typically captured on a multitude of devices operated by differing users. Nowhere in the prior art is provided social surveillance or security system that allows for uploading of these captured inputs, authentication of such inputs, and cloud-based analysis of the inputs in order to provide real-time or near real-time surveillance of a target environment. Prior art documents teach that camera and video input devices may be equipped with a time-stamp function that embeds a date and time into an image or video for later authentication. Also, it is known in the prior art to provide authentication of users and/or devices through the evaluation of uploaded content, including stenographic techniques such as digital fingerprinting and watermarking, or user-verification techniques such as login or CAPTCHA technologies and biometric scanning.
Notably, most of the prior art security surveillance systems disclose the use of fixed devices, rather than the use of mobile devices. For example, content-based analytics is widely used in CCTV settings and when verifying that digital content has been unaltered or authenticating a content's source (e.g., copyrighted music, images and videos). Additionally, similar technology has been deployed in military and law enforcement units, although these technologies typically require specialized pre-registered devices, as opposed to incorporating distributed, unknown devices.
By way of example, prior art documents disclosing aspects of mobile device surveillance include U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,559,914, 8,311,983 and 7,379,879, and U.S. Publication Nos. 2009/0087161, 2012/0282884 and 2012/0262576.
Additionally, geo-location information and contemporaneous timestamps may be embedded in a video stream together with a signature of the encoder, providing a mechanism for self-authentication of the video stream, whether it be from a mobile robot or device. A signature that is difficult to falsify (e.g., digitally signed using an identification code embedded in the hardware of the encoder) provides assurance of the trustworthiness of the geo-location information and timestamps, thereby establishing reliable time and space records for the recorded events. In general, data included in the database may be roughly classified into three categories: (i) automatically collected data; (ii) curated data; and (iii) derivative data. Automatically collected data includes, for example, such data as reading from environmental sensors and system operating parameters, which are collected as a matter of course automatically. Curated data is data collected from the examination of the collected data or from other sources and include, for example, content-based categorization of the video streams. For example, detection of a significant amount of motion at speeds typical of automobiles may suggest that the content is “traffic.” Derivative data includes any data resulting from analysis of the collected data, the curated data, or any combination of such data. For example, the database may maintain a ranking of video source based on viewership or a surge in viewership over recent time period. Derivative data may be generated automatically or upon demand.
None of the prior art provides solutions for cloud-based analytics of distributed input devices for secure social surveillance as provided by the present invention. Further, none of the prior art provides solutions for cloud-based analytics of distributed input devices, including automatic and/or autonomous and/or profile or program-based or other mobile robotic input devices, for secure social surveillance as provided by the present invention.